In Process - Squeaky Clean by Kimberly Kelly Santini

In Process, above "Squeaky Clean," 15" x 24", acrylics on museum quality panel, depicting a blood bay Thoroughbred getting bathed. Inspired by a sunny morning spent in the barn area at the historic Saratoga Racetrack last summer. This painting is available for $1299 to the first one asking nicely. Detail of Squeaky's face is below.

VIEW IN PROCESS PHOTOS

Every summer I visit Saratoga, New York - I drive through Canada and pick up Linda Shantz near Toronto, then we meet up with Jenifer Trottier (New Jersey), Juliet Harrison (New York) and Sharon Passmore (Tennessee). We spend our time talking horses and art while taking in the local gallery scene and getting as many hours at the track as possible.  Reference photos shot during those few days together fuel a year's worth of creating. That's where the pics behind "Squeaky Clean" came from. Thanks as always for following along with my artwork, Kim

ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com

Baby Steps

"Baby Steps," 10" x 5-3/4", acrylics on a museum quality panel, depicting a Gypsy Vanner mare and new foal, $399 to the first one to email. In process photos are here. I needed a breath of spring in the studio today, so I spoiled myself with some bright green grass. And indulged in another favorite of mine - black and white. Which as you know isn't really black or white. But that green? It is most definately green. Horses courtesy of Mt Christie Gypsy Horses, which I visited two springs ago with a friend, just days after this little one hit the ground.  Is it possible to have spring fever in early February? I'm in for a long couple of months if so..... Thanks for following along with my artwork,  Kim  ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com

Tribute To Glory by Karen Baker Thumm

Tribute To Glory - oil painting by Karen Thumm

After a long hiatus from the studio due to various health issues, I'm finally finding time and energy to get back to painting. Since Glory is the closest work in progress to being finished, she is the first up on the easel.

When last I left off working on her, I had corrected some drawing errors and had begun the second color layer. It's hard to tell where the second layer ends on her head and what is still the first layer. I briefly toyed with leaving it that way, but there are still too many unresolved areas yet to make that final decision.

So far I'm very pleased with how this painting is looking and am anxious to finish it. Glory was my horse's best friend when I first bought him. She was a broodmare who died during foaling years later. I was fond of her too which is why I felt she deserved to be immortalized.

Karen Baker Thumm
http://www.equineartist.com

Shasta Solomon ~~ Paintings with Soul by Kimberly Kelly Santini

Shasta Solomon, 12" square, acrylics on museum quality panel, depicting the fine Gypsy Vanner stallion Shasta Solomon from Shasta H Ranch, available for purchase after a few more tweaks, $599. Inquiries may come to me.     Today's workshop started out with a bang - a demonstration painting that I am just delighted with.   It's a challenge to paint and talk simultaneously. It's a bigger challenge to paint and articulately talk simultaneously. It's an even bigger challenge to paint well and articulately talk simultaneously.   Then my students asked me to also sing and dance.   It was all downhill from there!   That's ok - tomorrow, it's payback time!! Kim ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com

'Summer Snooze' by Valarie Wolf

This new painting is an 8 x 10 oil---I tend to favor this size for some reason.  I am playing around with warms and cools, and enjoy the subtle color changes which tend to add a lot to a painting.  I hope you enjoy!

Inspiration, meet brick wall. Problem.

Every artist goes through this.  Heck, EVERYONE, artist or not, hits this point once in awhile - where nothing seems to work and the creativity batteries are exhausted.  One of the benefits of a professional education in the visual arts is that, as a student, you learn to push through those blocks.  Don't feel like drawing?  Too bad.  Your job is to show up, sit down and produce credible work.  It may not be a masterpiece (or it might) but it will at least be passable.  Plus, (insert artist here, as everyone seems to have "heard" this from a different source!  I thought it was Picasso, but, alas, no verification) once famously said that every artist has 10,000 bad drawings in them.  So, even if what you are creating is fit only for the bottom of the bird cage, at least you are slogging your way towards drawing #10,001.
I know this.  I realize it.  I embrace it and expect it and know that if I just grit my teeth and push through, I will eventually be rewarded by a return to some sort of spark of inspiration. But in the meantime, and it IS a MEAN time,  I have half finished artworks watching me from all corners of my studio and precious little desire or desire to work on them.
The only consolation (small one, to be sure) is that I have spoken to a few friends (and fellow artists) recently who have all confided to having the same "lack of momentum" problem.  One of them is a bestselling novelist who stated simply that the book in her head wasn't "ready to be disgorged on the page yet." She finished with one word, which I think sums it up nicely: "Problem."

Fellow artists, how do you keep your motivation on days (or weeks) when things just aren't happening?

Here is where Tempest stands at the moment.  Notice the ink wash(es) and then the scratching out... ad infinitum.

"Tempest" WIP ©Joanna Zeller Quentin 2010.  All Rights Reserved.  www.MoosePantsStudio.com

and here is a new little portrait, just playing with color, also a work in progress. 

"Poised" WIP © Joanna Zeller Quentin 2010.  All Rights Reserved.  www.MoosePantsStudio.com

Painting a Dog a Day by Kimberly Kelly Santini

"Heads or Tails?," 8" x 16", acrylic on canvasboard, portrait of several broncos, $599. Inquiries may always come to me.

I think this painting is done, then I leave it for a few minutes, only to discover another change I'd like to make. So I'm reserving the right to simmer with this guy and figure out just what he needs. I'll use Photoshop and make my alterations on the computer screen prior to changing anything on the painting, this way I can work out a number of different scenarios.

My game plan is to send "Heads or Tails?," along with "Origami" to the Ex Arte Equinas competition. I have another image I'd like to paint as well, but my deadline is looming at the end of the month, so we'll see what the reality is.

Oh, and I must thank my friend Donna Ridgway for allowing me to purchase the rights to her fabulous bronco photos that inspired this piece, "Origami," and the painting to follow. Not having access to many rodeos in these parts, I am very grateful to Donna's expert eye and references for providing me with the inspiration to paint these pieces.

Thanks, as always, for looking at - and sharing - my artwork with your friends and family.

Kim

ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com

www.paintingadogaday.com

Derby Week at Painting a Dog a Day - Afternoon Sun

"Afternoon Sun," 6" x 12," acrylic on canvasboard, from the Painting a Dog a Day project, $359 to the first one raising their hand. On your mark, get set, go!!  ....inquiries may come to me.

 

As tradition in Painting a Dog a Day, the week before the Kentucky Derby is turned over to the horses. This week is an excuse to indulge in my lifelong love - I don't specifically paint Thoroughbreds during Derby Week but revel in all equine shapes and colors. 

 

So here's your first piece, a draft mix lazily grazing his way into the picture plane while the sun glances off his flanks. This is Tony, a huge lug of a sweetheart belonging to a good friend of mine who also happens to be a brilliant equine photographer. Check out Juliet's work at her website, including her newly published book.

 

Tony's piece is a lovely quiet painting that would make a nice accent to a variety of interiors. Email me if you have any questions about how to get this one on your wall. 

 

I can squeeze in one or two more equine paintings this week, if you care to nominate someone. Send your ideas to me via email.

 

Thanks, as always, for sharing my artwork with your friends and family.

Kim Santini

ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com

www.turtledovedesigns.com

Connected

This 24 x24 oil is at the Collective Fine Art Gallery in Fort Collins. In this painting I'm trying to use the same technique that I've been using with my Totem Animal series - but with the suggestion of a landscape, since I want to show the mare and foal connected not only to each other, but to their surroundings. Both the mare and foal are aware of the viewer, and so the connection goes beyond their world and enters ours, as we enter theirs.

www.katedardine.com

Prints of my work are available at Fine Print Collection.